Vincent van Gogh Paintings: "The Potato Eaters" Vincent van Gogh Paintings: "The Potato Eaters" Tweet Despite the modern demand for Vincent van Gogh paintings, the early years of van Gogh (1853-1890) offered nary a hint of his future popularity. Born in Groot-Zundert, Holland, and the son of a Calvinist pastor, he dropped out of school in 1869 to work for an art dealer; he was fired seven years later. He then spent two years as a lay preacher working with impoverished miners; he was denied ordination because he was considered "overly passionate" by Calvinist authorities. At the age of 27, he resolved to become an artist. Beginning at this juncture and for the rest of his life, Vincent van Gogh received emotional and financial support from his brother, Theo. Jean-Francois Millet, The Sower. Oil on canvas, 1850. 40" x 32.5". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

This included frequent letters between the two, providing not only insights into the specific intentions and contexts of Vincent van Gogh paintings, but also into Vincent's volatile mental health. From 1883 to 1885, he lived at his father's vicarage in Nuenen, Holland, where he created one of his most famous paintings, The Potato Eaters. The realistic art and peasant imagery of Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875) was hugely influential as he conveyed in a letter to Theo: "While I was doing it I thought again about what has so rightly been said of Millet's peasants - ‘His peasants seem to have been painted with the soil they sow'". Van Gogh also admired Jozef Israels, a painter of fishermen and peasants whom he described to Theo as the "Dutch Millet". Jozef Israels, Peasant Family at Table. Oil on canvas, 1882. Approximately 28" x 41". Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Inspired by Millet's The Sower and Israels' Peasant Family at Table, Vincent created Potato Eaters, which echoes Israels' work of art. Van Gogh's painting, however, has darker hues, an impasto paint texture, and more influence from Rembrandt's tenebrism (a painting style employed by Caravaggio and followers in which a few objects are brightly lit while the majority are in heavy shadow). Its perspective is askew - look how abruptly the ceiling beams recede - and reveals van Gogh's technical naivete. Or is it genius? The Potato Eaters. Oil on canvas, 1885. Approximately 32" x 45". Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam The peasants' gnarled hands and fingers evince severe arthritic pain, while the folds and wrinkles in their tattered clothing seem to restrain some unwieldy, internal force. On the wall, the Crucifixion picture and clock seem poised to jump off the wall rather than to remain attached. This explosive energy is a heartfelt but unsentimental contrast to its solemnity and tranquility, in which these peasants have nothing but coffee and potatoes to eat after a physically taxing day.

He was pleased with Potato Eaters, writing to Theo that ...in contrast to a great many other paintings, it has rusticity and a certain life in it. And then, although it's done differently, in a different century from the old Dutchmen, Ostade, for instance, it's nevertheless out of the heart of peasant life and - original. Tragically, his painting career was intermittently interrupted by an unspecifiable mental illness; the physician who admitted him to a psychiatric hospital in 1888 noted that his patient had "acute mania with hallucinations of sight and hearing." His failure to achieve financial stability was profoundly troubling - in spite of the exclusivity of van Gogh artwork today, some art historians claim he sold only one painting, Red Vineyard at Arles, during his lifetime; further, he had no patrons, and he was forced to remain financially dependent on Theo. Art historians have long claimed that Vincent died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1890, in spite of having recently received a postive review from the art critic Alberet Aurier .

That dismal demise may not be true: a new book written by two Pulitzer Prize winners, Van Gogh: The Life (Smith and Naifeh), makes a convincing case that Vincent was shot by local teenagers. Red Vineyard in Arles. Oil on canvas, 1888. Pushkin Museum. What is certain is that his impact on art history is incalcuabale. After painting for only one decade, we have 1000 van Gogh paintings - of which 70 were made in his final 70 days. Even with his abreviated life, poverty and mental illness, Vincent inspired Fauvists, Expressionists and legions of famous painters including Gauguin (1848 - 1903), Matisse (1869 - 1854), Maurice Vlaminck (1876 - 1958), Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876 - 1907), and Francis Bacon (1909 - 1992). Van Gogh paintings are some of the most cherished (and expensive) in the history of painting - that's one thing about him that remains certain.

Other Resources Explore the complete collection of van Gogh letters written to, and received from, Theo, and letters Vincent van Gogh wrote to famous painters and friends like Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard. Are you a fan of famous paintings? So are the folks at Masterpiece Cards. We took 23 leading art history books (some 17,000 pages!) and researched which painters and paintings were talked about most during the six centuries covered. From the opinions of these 40 art historians, we selected the top 250 famous paintings and made them into a set of information-packed Cards. Explore them! The Red Vineyard by Vincent van Gogh - World's most valuable painting "you will be surprised by all what Natalia knows :-)" Cremerie de Paris is a legendary milk store in Paris which the editor reopened in the mid 1993 as a Sony Video store which became the first Internetcafe in France. The legendary Natalia Brodskaya from the Hermitage Museum. in the staircase which was a childhood place for Louis XIV who played there with his friends Francois de Villeroy and his sister Catherine de Villeroy. The visitors of the early Cybercafe were the most fascinating.

Already connected Americans visiting Paris and desperately looking for internet access to use something nobody in France knew about: "email". We encountered many tech pioneers most of the time not even realizing who they were ... or who they were going to become. Some were already older, one had walked on the Moon , another one had, as a young woman, been a friend of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the phone . With the inspiration of these avant garde Cybercafe visitors we started a collection of iconic Internet Domains which were later transformed into different websites: Phonebook of the World, Grand Hotels of the World and many many and different pieces reconnect like a puzzle. Has Vincent van Gogh ever been at the Cremerie de Paris ?? For the Moment the editor of this website does not know. If ever uncle Eugene (1855- 1941) knew that the old Villeroys lived there it's possible that he showed the place to Vincent van Gogh in the years 1888 to 1890.

During those years they lived walking distance from each other in Paris Montmartre not very far from the center of Paris where is located the Cremerie de Paris (since 1870) at the Hotel de Villeroy (since 1640) . The direct uncle of Eugene and Anna Boch (older brother of their father Victor Boch) was Eugene von Boch (1808 - 1898) who was married to Octavie Villeroy (1823-1899) They were also the great great grandparents of the editor of this website who currently manages the Cremerie de Paris. Octavie Villeroy was the granddaughter of the ceramics entrepreneur Nicolas Villeroy (1759-1843) Eugen von Boch was the grandson of the ceramics entrepreneur Pierre Joseph Boch (1737-1818) Nobody knows if there is any link between Nicolas Villeroy and the old Nicolas de Villeroy During the French Revolution the roots were lost.

Nicolas IV de Villeroy (secretary of state and advisor of 4 Kings of France) and his grandson Nicolas V de Villeroy (educator of King Louis XIV) The Villeroys lived at the Hotel de Villeroy until 1671 When the editor of this website arrived at the mansion in 1993 he had no idea about it's fascinating history and all these historic links ... It's only that he head heard via Coco Chanel that Vincent van Gogh had once been there ... Cremerie de Paris and it's historic staircase were a secret nightwalk destination for Chanel and her Brazilian friend Aimée de Heeren. Both Ladies lived nearby the other at the Hotel Meurice how did Chanel know ? She was too young to have met van Gogh in person ... We have to continue to research .... Never having cared about the age of his friends and talking to all kinds of people sometimes met somewhere in the street the editor of this website had direct access to fascinating history. And when you start to research even more it's amazing all what you find ....

A year later - summer 2016 the unusual meeting with above mentioned fascinating Lady from the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg The Lore: Van Gogh Sold Only One Painting During His Life The Lore: Van Gogh Sold Only One Painting During His Life The Red Vineyards at Arles, 1888, by Vincent Van Gogh. Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art/Getty Images By Lisa Marder Updated May 31, 2016. Although lore has it that the post-Impressionist painter , Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) , sold only one painting during his lifetime, different theories exist. The one painting commonly thought to have been sold is The Red Vineyard at Arles (The Vigne Rouge) , now located at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. However, some sources posit that different paintings sold first, and that other paintings and drawings were sold or bartered in addition to The Red Vineyard at Arles.

However, it is true that The Red Vineyard at Arles is the only painting sold during van Gogh's lifetime the name of which we actually know, and that was "officially" recorded and acknowledged by the art world, and hence the lore persists. Of course, bearing in mind that van Gogh didn't start painting until he was twenty-seven years old, and died when he was thirty-seven, it would not be unremarkable that he did not sell many. Furthermore, the paintings that were to become famous were the ones produced after he went to Arles, France in 1888, only two years before he died. continue reading below our video Profile of Vincent van Gogh What is remarkable is that just a few decades after his death his art would become well-known worldwide and that he would eventually become one of the most famous artists ever. Red Vineyard at Arles In 1889 Van Gogh was invited to participate in a group show in Brussels called the XX (or the Vingtistes). Van Gogh suggested to his brother, Theo, an art dealer and Van Gogh's agent, that he send six paintings to be exhibited with the group, one of which was The Red Vineyard.

Anna Boch , a Belgian artist and art collector, bought the painting in early 1890 for 400 Belgian francs, perhaps because she liked the painting and wanted to show her support for Van Gogh, whose work was being criticized; perhaps to help him financially; and perhaps to please her brother, Eugène, whom she knew was a friend of Vincent's. (1) Eugène Boch, like his sister Anna, was also a painter and had visited Van Gogh in Arles, France in 1888. They became friends and Van Gogh painted his portrait, which he called The Poet. According to the notes at the Musée d'Orsay where the portrait of Eugène Boch is now located, it seems that The Poet hung in van Gogh's room in the Yellow House in Arles for awhile as evidenced by the fact that it is seen in the first version of The Bedroom, which is in the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam). Apparently Anna Boch owned two paintings of Van Gogh's and her brother, Eugène, owned several.

(2) Anna Boch sold The Red Vineyard in 1906, though, for 10,000 francs, and it was sold again that same year to a Russian textile business man, Sergei Shchukin. It was given to the Pushkin Museum by the State of Russia in 1948. Van Gogh painted The Red Vineyard from memory in early November 1888 while the artist, Paul Gauguin was living with him in Arles. It is a dramatic landscape painting in saturated autumnal reds and yellows punctuated by the blue clothing of workers in a vineyard, with a bright yellow sky and sun reflected in the river adjacent to the vineyard. The viewer's eye is drawn through the landscape by the strong diagonal line that leads to the high horizon and the setting sun in the distance. In one of his many letters to his brother, Theo, Van Gogh tells him he is "working on a vineyard, all purple and yellow" and goes on to describe it further, "But if only you’d been with us on Sunday! We saw a red vineyard, completely red like red wine.

In the distance it became yellow, and then a green sky with a sun, fields violet and sparkling yellow here and there after the rain in which the setting sun was reflected." (3) In a subsequent letter to Theo, Vincent says about this painting, "I’m going to set myself to work often from memory, and the canvases done from memory are always less awkward and have a more artistic look than the studies from nature, especially when I’m working in mistral conditions." (4) A Self-Portrait Sold The myth of The Red Vineyard being the only painting sold by Van Gogh during his lifetime has been challenged by leading van Gogh scholar, Marc Edo Tralbaut, author of Vincent Van Gogh (Buy from Amazon) , an authoritative and comprehensive biography of Van Gogh. Tralbaut deduced that Theo sold a self-portrait by Vincent over a year before the sale of The Red Vineyard. Tralbaut uncovered a letter from October 3, 1888 in which Theo wrote to London art dealers, Sulley and Lori, saying "We have the honour to inform you that we have sent you the two pictures you have bought and duly paid for: a landscape by Camille Corot ...

a self-portrait by V. van Gogh." (5) However others have analyzed this transaction and discovered anomalies regarding the date of October 3, 1888, speculating that Theo dated his letter incorrectly. The reasons they give for their theory are that Theo never again referred to the sale of one of Vincent's paintings in London in subsequent correspondence; Sulley and Lori were not yet partners in 1888; and there is no record of a Corot being sold to Sulley in October 1888. Read more about this theory in Theo's Letter Addressed to Sulley and Lawrie (sic). Van Gogh Museum According to the Van Gogh Museum website , Van Gogh actually sold or bartered a number of paintings during his lifetime. His first commission came from his Uncle Cor who was an art dealer. Wanting to help his nephew's career he ordered 19 cityscapes of The Hague. Particularly when Van Gogh was younger, he would trade his paintings for food or art supplies, a practice not unfamiliar to many young artists starting out in their careers.

The Museum website states that "Vincent sold his first painting to the Parisian paint and art dealer Julien Tanguy, and his brother Theo successfully sold another work to a gallery in London." (6) (Perhaps this is the self portrait referred to above) The website also mentions The Red Vineyard. According to Louis van Tilborgh, chief curator at the Van Gogh Museum, Vincent also mentions in his own letters that he sold a portrait (not a self-portrait) to someone, but it is not known which portrait.(7) The CityEconomist points out that much has been learned from Vincent's letters to Theo, made available by the Van Gogh Museum. The letters reveal that Vincent did sell much art before he died, that the relatives who purchased his art knew a lot about art and purchased them as investments, that his art was appreciated by other artists and dealers, and that the money that Theo was "giving" to his brother was actually in exchange for paintings that, as a shrewd dealer, he was saving to put on the market when their actual value would be realized. Selling Van Gogh's Work After His Death Vincent died in July of 1890.

Theo's greatest desire after his brother died was to make his work more widely known, but sadly he, himself, died just six months later from syphilis. He left a large collection of art to his wife, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, who "sold some of Vincent's works, lent as many as she could to exhibitions, and published Vincent's letters to Theo. Without her dedication Van Gogh would never have become as famous as he is today." (8) Given that both Vincent and Theo died such untimely deaths within such a short time of one another, the world owes much to Theo's wife Jo, for taking care of Theo's collection of Vincent's artwork and letters and making sure they ended up in the right hands. Theo and Jo's son, Vincent Willem van Gogh took over care of the collection upon the death of his mother and founded the Van Gogh Museum.

Further Reading and Viewing Vincent Van Gogh - Biography VAN GOGH Vincent 1853 - 1890 (Dutch) Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853 - July 29, 1890) is generally considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt, though he had little success during his lifetime. Van Gogh produced all of his work (some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings) during a period of only 10 years before he succumbed to mental illness (possibly bipolar disorder) and committed suicide. His fame grew rapidly after his death especially following a showing of 71 of van Gogh's paintings in Paris on March 17, 1901 (11 years after his death). (Properly the name rhymes with loch, but it is also pronounced 'goph', 'go' and 'goe'.) Van Gogh's influence on expressionism, fauvism and early abstraction was enormous, and can be seen in many other aspects of 20th-century art. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries.

The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (also in The Netherlands), has a considerable collection of Vincent van Gogh paintings as well. Several paintings by Van Gogh rank among the most expensive paintings in the world. On March 30, 1987 Van Gogh's painting Irises was sold for a record $53.9 million at Sotheby's, New York. On May 15, 1990 his Portrait of Doctor Gachet was sold for $82.5 million at Christie's, thus establishing a new price record (see also List of most expensive paintings). Life and Work Vincent was born in Zundert, Netherlands; his father was a Protestant minister, a profession that Vincent found appealing and to which he would be drawn to a certain extent later in his life. His sister described him as a serious and introspective child. At age 16 Vincent started to work for the art dealer Goupil & Co. in The Hague. His brother Theo, four years his junior, with whom Vincent cherished a life long friendship, would join the company later. This friendship is amply documented in a vast amount of letters they sent each other.

These letters have been preserved and were published in 1914. They provide a lot of insight into the life of the painter, and show him to be a talented writer with a keen mind. Theo would support Vincent financially throughout his life. In 1873, his firm transferred him to London, then to Paris. He became increasingly interested in religion; in 1876 Goupil dismissed him for lack of motivation. He became a teaching assistant in Ramsgate near London, then returned to Amsterdam to study theology in 1877. After dropping out in 1878, he became a lay preacher in Belgium in a poor mining region known as the Borinage. He even preached down in the mines and was extremely concerned with the lot of the workers. He was dismissed after 6 months and continued without pay. During this period he started to produce charcoal sketches. In 1880, Vincent followed the suggestion of his brother Theo and took up painting in earnest. For a brief period Vincent took painting lessons from Anton Mauve at The Hague.

Although Vincent and Anton soon split over divergence of artistic views, influences of the Hague School of painting would remain in Vincent's work, notably in the way he played with light and in the looseness of his brush strokes. However his usage of colours, favouring dark tones, set him apart from his teacher. In 1881 he declared his love to his widowed cousin Kee Vos, who rejected him. Later he would move in with the prostitute Sien Hoornik and her children and considered marrying her; his father was strictly against this relationship and even his brother Theo advised against it. They later separated. Impressed and influenced by Jean-François Millet, van Gogh focussed on painting peasants and rural scenes. He moved to the Dutch province Drenthe, later to Nuenen, North Brabant, also in The Netherlands. Here he painted in 1885 The Potato Eaters (Dutch Aardappeleters, now in The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam). In the winter of 1885-1886 Van Gogh attended the art academy of Antwerp, Belgium. This proved a disappointment as he was dismissed after a few months by Professor Eugène Siberdt.

Van Gogh did however get in touch with Japanese art during this period, which he started to collect eagerly. He admired its bright colours, use of canvas space and the role lines played in the picture. These impressions would influence him strongly. Van Gogh made some painting in Japanese style. Also some of the portraits he painted are set against a background which shows Japanese art. In spring 1886 Van Gogh went to Paris, where he moved in with his brother Theo; they shared a house on Montmartre. Here he met the painters Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Emile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. He discoverd impressionism and liked its use of light and colour, more than its lack of social engagement (as he saw it). Especially the technique known as pointillism (where many small dots are applied to the canvas that blend into rich colors only in the eye of the beholder, seeing it from a distance) made its mark on Van Goghs own style. It should be noted that Van Gogh is regarded as a post-impressionist, rather than an impressionist.

Van Gogh also used complementary colors, especially blue and orange, in close proximity in order to enhance the brilliance of each (see color). In 1888, when city life and living with his brothers proved too much, Van Gogh left Paris and went to Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. He was impressed with the local landscape and hoped to found an art colony. He decorated a "yellow house" and created a celebrated series of yellow sunflower paintings for this purpose. Only Paul Gauguin, whose simplified colour schemes and forms (known as synthetism) attracted van Gogh, followed his invitation. The admiration was mutual, and Gauguin painted van Gogh painting sunflowers. However their encounter ended in a quarrel. Van Gogh suffered a mental breakdown and cut off part of his left ear, which he gave to a startled prostitute friend. Gauguin left in December 1888. The only painting he sold during his lifetime, The Red Vineyard, was created in 1888. It is now on display in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, Russia. Van Gogh now exchanged painting dots for small stripes.

He suffered from depression, and in 1889 on his own request Van Gogh was admitted to the psychiatric center at Monastery Saint-Paul de Mausole in Saint Remy de Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. During his stay here the clinic and its garden became his main subject. Pencil strokes changed again, now into spiral curves. In May 1890 Vincent left the clinic and went to the physician Paul Gachet, in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, where he was closer to his brother Theo, who had recently married. Gachet had been recommended to him by Pissarro; he had treated several artists before. Here van Gogh created his only etching: a portrait of the melancholic doctor Gachet. His depression aggravated. On July 27 of the same year, at the age of 37, after a fit of painting activity, van Gogh shot himself in the chest. He died two days later, with Theo at his side, who reported his last words as "La tristesse durera toujours" (French: "The sadness will last forever").

He was buried at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise; Theo unable to come to terms with his brother's death died 6 months later and was buried next to him. It would not take long before his fame grew higher and higher. Large exhibitions were organised soon: Paris 1901, Amsterdam 1905, Cologne 1912, New York 1913 and Berlin 1914. The Red Vineyard at Arles, c.1888 Art Print by Vincent van Gogh at Art.com Product Details Product Details High-quality printing gives this fine art print its vivid and sharp appearance. Produced on medium weight cover stock, this art reproduction is coated with a silken finish that protects the inks and creates an elegant look. The versatile art print strikes a balance between quality and affordability. About the Art Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist Master whose innovative artwork powerfully influenced modern Expressionism, Fauvism, and early abstraction.

Astoundingly prolific, Van Gogh produced all of his work during a 10-year period, at one point, creating 150 paintings and drawings within one year. Painting outdoors, Van Gogh uniquely captured the nighttime nuances of light and shadow, and was also renowned for his paintings of sunflowers and irises. Tormented by mental illness for most of his life, Van Gogh created many of his masterpieces while he was institutionalized. Although Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime, he is now regarded as one of the most profoundly influential artists of the 19th century. Read More “The Red Vineyard at Arles” by Vincent Van Gogh was the only painting sold during the lifetime of the spectacularly gifted and prolific Impressionist. Although one of Van Gogh’s (1853 – 1890) works auctioned for an astounding $82.5 million in 1990, this piece sold for the equivalent of $1,600 during the artist's already troubled and poverty-stricken existence. The work was bought by Anna Boch, who was also an Impressionist painter, and the sister of Van Gogh’s friend Eugene Boch.

Van Gogh painted this work completely from memory after an evening stroll past a vineyard. The dominant colors of red and yellow exemplify how he disregarded the established laws of contrasting color theory with magnificent results. Item# 10021474A Art Smart: Vincent Van Gogh Vincent Van Gogh 1885 Realistic The Potato Eaters is considered Van Gogh’s first great painting. His goal was to paint people naturally. The darkness in the painting reflects the economic poorness of the people. Van Gogh had hoped this painting would make him famous, but no one took notice of it at the time. Vase with 12 Sunflowers 1888 Still Life Van Gogh moved to Arles, France in August 1888 and painted many still life of sunflowers during the next year. Although the sunflowers resemble each other, each sunflower has unique qualities. During this time, newly invented yellow pigment (color) made it possible for Van Gogh to use various yellows in a new and fresh way. Starry Night 1889 Impressionism Starry Night is one of Van Gogh’s most popular works.

This was the window view Van Gogh had from the hospital where he was being treated. He painted this during the day from memory. The curving swirling yellows and bright dotted rings of stars against the blue sky give life and movement to the night sky over the peaceful village below. The Red Vineyard The Potato Eaters by Vincent van Gogh Terminos de Busqueda de Google Vincent van Gogh: The Potato Eaters A Brief Understanding of The Potato Eaters Painting. The Potato Eaters, completed in 1885, is considered by many to be Van Gogh's first great work of art. At the time of its creation, Van Gogh had only recently started painting and had not yet mastered the techniques that would later make him famous. This could attribute to the interesting look of the piece as well as the overall feeling produced from the painting. Van Gogh wished to create his first masterpiece that could boost his reputation as a developed artist; his goal was to paint human figures that did not appear to be awkward, but rather existing naturally. Portraying the figures in a dark room with light from an oil lamp, however, proved to be a bit too extreme for his newly acquired artistic skills.

The outcome of all of these factors, in turn, made the painting more appreciated in the art community then if Van Gogh had succeeded in his original task. The painting that was completed consisted of 5 figures sitting around a square table eating potatoes; four of them are females and one male. Although the piece is laced in darkness, the mixed emotions residing in the faces of the occupants shine out brightly. These figures are so intense that one can nearly hear the conversations being spoken around the table. Perhaps this vibrancy layered with the darkness is what draws one closer to examine the smaller details of the painting. These details include but are not limited to: The rafter boards in the back of the piece. The soft gentle lines forming a window in the darkness. The picture frame hung on a darkened wall. The large platter of potatoes, and the boney fingers stretched out to obtain them. The woman pouring a brew similar to coffee. The large rectangular column behind the table that seems to hold the building up. The weathered edges of the table. These subtle aspects create the illusion that the building is an actual residence for the five figures.

This portrayal of ordinary peasant life did not come in a burst of creativity; Van Gogh had planned out the painting of The Potato Eaters far in advance, and had inspiration to create a multiple figure painting as far back as 1883. After completing various sketches and trial paintings of the piece, Van Gogh sent reversed lithograph prints to two art dealers of the time and one of his fellow colleagues, while still planning to create a final draft of the sketch in paint. Van Gogh soon developed a sense of confidence that his finished painting would become an accurate interpretation of what he saw it as. Gogh began to advertise his finished painting before he had even begun it. Never the less The Potato Eaters failed to become the painting he had set his mind to. It was not successful in his life time, nor was it displayed in Salon as Gogh had requested. Today the piece has reached great heights in the artistic community as well as being considered his first masterpiece, which is what he had intended it to be.

The Vincent van Gogh Gallery's Potato Eaters Resource: Potato Eater Downloads: Vincent van Gogh Paintings Terminos de Busqueda de Google Vincent van Gogh Paintings Click here for the Catalog of Van Gogh Paintings > Between November of 1881 and July of 1890, Vincent van Gogh painted almost 900 paintings. Since his death, he has become one of the most famous painters in the world. Van Gogh’s paintings have captured the minds and hearts of millions of art lovers and have made art lovers of those new to world of art. The following excerpts are from letters that Van Gogh wrote expressing how he evolved as a painter. There are also links to pages describing some of Vincent van Gogh's most famous paintings, Starry Night , Sunflowers , Irises , Poppies , The Bedroom , Blossoming Almond Tree , The Mulberry Tree , The Night Café , and The Potato Eaters , in great detail.

In December of 1881, at the age of 28 just as he began his first paintings Vincent wrote to his brother Theo about becoming a painter, “Theo, I am so very happy with my paintbox, and I think my getting it now, after having drawn almost exclusively for at least a year, better than if I had started with it immediately… For, Theo, with painting my real career begins. Don't you think I am right to consider it so?” Van Gogh worked at a feverish pace costing him money, causing him mental and physical stress and leaving him no time for any other source of income. But he was persistent. In a letter from March of 1882, Van Gogh wrote again to his brother Theo, “Although I find myself in financial difficulties, I nevertheless have the feeling that there is nothing more solid than a `handicraft' in the literal sense of working with one's hands. If you became a painter, one of the things that would surprise you is that painting and everything connected with it is quite hard work in physical terms.

Leaving aside the mental exertion, the hard thought, it demands considerable physical effort, and that day after day.” In the same letter to Theo from 1882, Van Gogh writes, “There are two ways of thinking about painting, how not to do it and how to do it: how to do it - with much drawing and little colour; how not to do it - with much colour and little drawing." Van Gogh firmly believed that to be a great painter you had to first master drawing before adding color. Over the years Van Gogh clearly mastered drawing and began to use more color. In time, one of the most recognizable aspects of Van Gogh’s paintings became his bold use of color. This is evident in both Van Gogh's landscapes and his still life paintings About a year before his death Van Gogh predicted that there would be a great “painter of the future” who would know how to use color like no one else and would become the future of painting.

He expressed this in a letter to his brother Theo in May of 1888, “As for me, I shall go on working, and here and there something of my work will prove of lasting value - but who will there be to achieve for figure painting what Claude Monet has achieved for landscape? However, you must feel, as I do, that someone like that is on the way - Rodin? - he does not use colour - it won't be him. But the painter of the future will be a colourist the like of which has never yet been seen. But I'm sure I am right to think that it will come in a later generation, and it is up to us to do all we can to encourage it, without question or complaint.” During his lifetime Van Gogh was never famous as a painter and struggled to make a living as an artist. Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime The Red Vineyard . This painting sold in Brussels for 400 Francs only a few months before his death. Vincent van Gogh died at the age of 37 bringing his career as a painter to an end, but beginning his legacy as the great painter of the future who inspired the world.

About a week after his death, Van Gogh’s brother Theo wrote to his sister Elizabeth about Van Gogh’s legacy as a great artist, “In the last letter which he wrote me and which dates from some four days before his death, it says, “I try to do as well as certain painters whom I have greatly loved and admired.” People should realize that he was a great artist, something which often coincides with being a great human being. In the course of time this will surely be acknowledged, and many will regret his early death.” Vincent van Gogh died at the age of 37 bringing his career as a painter to an end, but beginning his legacy as the great painter of the future who inspired the world. Today it remains a mystery as to what Van Gogh’s last painting was before his death. Find out more about which paintings among his final works are considered to be perhaps Vincent van Gogh’s last painting . The Potato Eaters : Considered Van Gogh's first great painting. Sunflowers : Vincent van Gogh's famous still life collection is detailed here.

Starry Night : Van Gogh's most famous painting is reviewed as well as Starry Night Over the Rhone and The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night. Before and After : Comparison of Van Gogh's Early Paintings with those after being influenced by Impressionism. The Vincent van Gogh Gallery's Painting Resource: High Resolution Images: Van Gogh Prints Sources: Vincent van Gogh. Letter to Theo van Gogh. Written 22-24 December 1881 in Etten. Translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, edited by Robert Harrison, published in The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Publisher: Bulfinch, 1991, number 165. URL: Vincent van Gogh. Letter to Theo van Gogh. Written c. 14-18 March 1882 in The Hague. Translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, edited by Robert Harrison, published in The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Publisher: Bulfinch, 1991, number 182. URL: Vincent van Gogh. Letter to Theo van Gogh. Written c.

4 May 1888 in Arles. Translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, edited by Robert Harrison, published in The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Publisher: Bulfinch, 1991, number 482. URL: Theo van Gogh. Letter to Elisabeth van Gogh. Written 5 August 1890 in Paris. Translated by Robert Harrison, edited by Robert Harrison, published in Various sources, number . URL: Vincent van Gogh Biography Vincent Van Gogh Biography Self Portrait with Pallette Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853 - July 29, 1890) is generally considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt, though he had little success during his lifetime. Van Gogh produced all of his work (some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings) during a period of only 10 years before he succumbed to mental illness (possibly bipolar disorder) and committed suicide.

His fame grew rapidly after his death especially following a showing of 71 of van Gogh's paintings in Paris on March 17, 1901 (11 years after his death). Van Gogh's influence on expressionism, fauvism and early abstraction was enormous, and can be seen in many other aspects of 20th-century art. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries. Several paintings by Van Gogh rank among the most expensive paintings in the world. On March 30, 1987 Van Gogh's painting Irises was sold for a record $53.9 million at Southeby's, New York. On May 15, 1990 his Portrait of Doctor Gachet was sold for $82.5 million at Christie's, thus establishing a new price record (see also List of most expensive paintings). Life and Work Vincent was born in Zundert, The Netherlands; his father was a protestant minister, a profession that Vincent found appealing and to which he would be drawn to a certain extent later in his life. His sister described him as a serious and introspective child.

At age 16 Vincent started to work for the art dealer Goupil & Co. in The Hague. His four years younger brother Theo, with whom Vincent cherished a life long friendship, would join the company later. This friendship is amply documented in a vast amount of letters they sent each other. These letters have been preserved and were published in 1914. They provide a lot of insight into the life of the painter, and show him to be a talented writer with a keen mind. Theo would support Vincent financially throughout his life. In 1873, his firm transferred him to London, then to Paris. He became increasingly interested in religion; in 1876 Goupil dismissed him for lack of motivation. He became a teaching assistant in Ramsgate near London, then returned to Amsterdam to study theology in 1877. After dropping out in 1878, he became a layman preacher in Belgium in a poor mining region known as the Borinage. He even preached down in the mines and was extremely concerned with the lot of the workers. He was dismissed after 6 months and continued without pay. During this period he started to produce charcoal sketches.

In 1880, Vincent van Gogh followed the suggestion of his brother Theo and took up painting in earnest. For a brief period Vincent took painting lessons from Anton Mauve at The Hague. Although Vicent and Anton soon split over divergence of artistic views, influences of the Hague School of painting would remain in Vincents work, notably in the way he played with light and in the looseness of his brush strokes. However his usage of colours, favouring dark tones, set him apart from his teacher. Sien's Mother's House Seen from the Backyard In 1881 he declared his love to his widowed cousin Kee Vos, who rejected him. Later he would move in with the prostitute Sien Hoornik and her children and considered marrying her; his father was strictly against this relationship and even his brother Theo advised against it. They later separated. Impressed and influenced by Jean-Francois Millet, van Gogh focussed on painting peasants and rural scenes. He moved to the Dutch province Drenthe, later to Nuenen, North Brabant, also in The Netherlands. Here he painted in 1885.

Japonaiserie (after Hiroshige) In the winter of 1885-1886 Van Gogh attended the art academy of Antwerp, Belgium. This proved a disappointment as he was dismissed after a few months by his Professor. Van Gogh did however get in touch with Japanese art during this period, which he started to collect eagerly. He admired its bright colors, use of canvas space and the role lines played in the picture. These impressions would influence him strongly. Van Gogh made some painting in Japanese style. Also some of the portraits he painted are set against a background which shows Japanese art. In spring 1886 Vincent van Gogh went to Paris, where he moved in with his brother Theo; they shared a house on Montmartre. Here he met the painters met Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. He discovered impressionism and liked its use of light and color, more than its lack of social engagement (as he saw it).

Especially the technique known as pointillism (where many small dots are applied to the canvas that blend into rich colors only in the eye of the beholder, seeing it from a distance) made its mark on Van Goghs own style. It should be noted that Van Gogh is regarded as a post-impressionist, rather than an impressionist. Still Life with Two Sunflowers I In 1888, when city life and living with his brothers proved too much, Van Gogh left Paris and went to Arles, Bouches-du-Rh, France. He was impressed with the local landscape and hoped to found an art colony. He decorated a "yellow house" and created a celebrated series of yellow sunflower paintings for this purpose. Only Paul Gauguin, whose simplified colour schemes and forms (known as synthetism) attracted van Gogh, followed his invitation. The admiration was mutual, and Gauguin painted van Gogh painting sunflowers. However their encounter ended in a quarrel. Van Gogh suffered a mental breakdown and cut off part of his left ear, which he gave to a startled prostitute friend. Gauguin left in December 1888.

The Red Vineyard The only painting he sold during his lifetime, The Red Vineyard, was created in 1888. It is now on display in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, Russia. Vincent van Gogh now exchanged painting dots for small stripes. He suffered from depression, and in 1889 on his own request Van Gogh was admitted to the psychiatric center at Monastery Saint-Paul de Mausole in Saint Remy de Provence, Bouches-du-Rh, France. During his stay here the clinic and its garden became his main subject. Pencil strokes changed again, now into spiral curves. Portrait Of Doctor Gachet In May 1890 Vincent van Gogh left the clinic and went to the physician Paul Gachet, in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, where he was closer to his brother Theo, who had recently married. Gachet had been recommended to him by Pissarro; he had treated several artists before. Here van Gogh created his only etching: a portrait of the melancholic doctor Gachet. His depression aggravated.

On July 27 of the same year, at the age of 37, after a fit of painting activity, van Gogh shot himself in the chest. He died two days later, with Theo at his side, who reported his last words as "La tristesse durera toujours" (French: "The sadness will last forever"). He was buried at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise; Theo unable to come to terms with his brother's death died 6 months later and was buried next to him. It would not take long before his fame grew higher and higher. Large exhibitions were organized soon: Paris 1901, Amsterdam 1905, Cologne 1912, New York 1913 and Berlin 1914. Vincent van Gogh's mother threw away quite a number of his paintings during Vincent's life and even after his death. But she would live long enough to see her son become a world famous painter.

[From: The Potato Eaters, Vincent Van Gogh (1885) | Culture | The Guardian The Potato Eaters, Vincent Van Gogh (1885) Friday 10 January 2003 20.02 EST First published on Friday 10 January 2003 20.02 EST · All articles in this series Artist: Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a social radical whose encounter with impressionism through his art dealer brother Theo enabled him to create an art at once sensual and compassionate. His genius was literary as well as visual (his letters constitute one of the greatest 19th-century novels) and, prior to his going to Paris in 1886, his idea of himself as an artist was formed as much by his reading of socially critical authors, especially Charles Dickens and George Eliot, as by his reverence for the rural painter Millet. Teaching himself to draw and paint while living a marginal life in Holland, he rejected the bourgeois art of portraiture and romantic narrative in favour of a raw scrutiny of nature and of peasants scratching a living from the hard cold ground.

On the eve of his discovering impressionism, Van Gogh saw himself as a painter of peasant life - a simple-hearted, popular alternative to the urban painter-flaneur whom Baudelaire characterised as the painter of modern life. "By continually observing peasant life, at all hours of the day," he wrote to Theo, "I have become so involved in it that I rarely think of anything else." Subject: This painting grew out of the portrait studies of peasants that Van Gogh made around Nuenen. Distinguishing features: Their faces and hands are big, gnarled, earthy, as if they had been made out of the ground they dig. Their simple supper is sacramental; they are grave, intent and somehow excited, as if they get more pleasure and social communion from this meal of potatoes and coffee than the rich man takes from his exquisite feast. The young woman's eyes looking at, presumably, her husband are extraordinary. There's adoration in them; for all their back-breaking toil, Van Gogh implies, these people are sexually alive. There's a bond, too, between the older couple to the right. The girl with her back to us completes the circle around the table.

Above everything is the cartoonish red and yellow flame of the oil lamp creating a pool of warmth within the cavernous, mineral-grey space that represents night, terror, the cold world. For all their community, these people are aware of the harshness of their lives; the man on the left is lost in thought, as is the woman pouring coffee. They might be thinking of injustice. The Potato Eaters is Van Gogh's first ambitious painting, in which he synthesises his ideas about art and society: he conceived it as a painting not only of peasants, but for peasants. And yet Van Gogh was never a prosaic realist; he had a charged sense of painting as visual ecstasy. In his letter to Theo explaining this painting, he elaborates his theory of colour, comparing his scintillating combinations to the ones weavers use. Van Gogh never abandoned his belief in a humble art. The rustic aesthetic he imposed on The Yellow House in Arles belongs recognisably to the same world as The Potato Eaters. Look at the wooden straw-seated chair of the peasant on the far left: it is the kind immortalised by his 1888 painting Van Gogh's Chair.

Inspirations and influences: The dark setting and spiritual depth of this painting evoke one of Van Gogh's favourite artists, Rembrandt. Where is it? Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Question: Which artist painted The Red Vineyard, the only painting he sold during his lifetime, in 1888 and The Potato Eaters in 1885?
Answer: Vincent van Gogh